Terrible tariff

THE recent imposition of a cumulative 62.5 per cent tariff on imported books is yet another demonstration of the policy inconsistencies that have come to define the Jonathan administration. A toxic combination of levies, duties and value-added tax, the tariff was approved in February.

It is difficult to imagine a more wrong-headed policy. At a time when Nigeria is beset by a multi-dimensional crisis in its education system characterised by significant percentages in functional and absolute illiteracy, relatively low school enrollment, and an entrenched antipathy to reading, the Federal Government decides to make the importation of books even more difficult than it already is. In so doing, it contradicts the goals of the National Book Policy, and violates existing international conventions, such as the 1950 United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Treaty, which commits members to facilitating the free flow of ideas by dismantling all barriers to trade in books and related materials.

The ostensible reason for the measure is that of reviving the comatose local publishing industry by raising tariff barriers to external competition. However, such reasoning becomes untenable when the uniqueness of books is considered. They are not just another manufactured product that can easily be replaced with a viable local substitute; books are the building-blocks of knowledge, enlightenment and understanding. In other words, their intrinsic value is so great as to place them virtually beyond price.

Like all badly thought-out policies, the new tariff strikes at unintended targets: it harms local publishers almost as much as it does the supposed foreign competitors. The relatively expensive and inefficient printing industry has made it very difficult for local publishers to produce standard-quality books at competitive prices. This has made it necessary for them to print abroad in countries like Dubai, China and Turkey. Now, they will have to choose between mediocre work at home and increased expense abroad.

The local book market is not that profitable, either. In spite of a huge population of an estimated 170 million people, there is a deeply-engrained antipathy to reading which has affected the demand for books. This has artificially reduced profitability by restricting the market to educational texts, religious books and the occasional self-help treatise; even such best-sellers are vulnerable to the depredations of the pirates and smugglers that abound in the country.

These shortcomings are worsened by policy issues that make long-term planning hard to implement: the lack of official support for local publishing; abrupt changes in prescribed books for educational institutions; unreliable school calendars; wildly-fluctuating costs of essential inputs like paper, ink and equipment, and the decline in bookshops, libraries and other outlets for books.

The consequences of the new tariff are obvious. The increased expense of books will further deepen the low esteem in which reading culture is held, and by extension it will worsen the already-formidable challenges facing the education sector. This will in turn negatively affect Nigerians’ ability to properly prepare themselves for the knowledge economy which is the defining principle of development in the 21st century.

If this grim fate is to be avoided, then the Federal Government must take another look at its imposition of the tariff on book importation. Books are not luxury items; they are simply too valuable to be treated like any other import. If the authorities are truly interested in building up the local book industry, they should consider a more nuanced approach to the issue by working with local publishers to see how cost-effective local production can be encouraged over time. This will include developing paper-production capacity, long-term financing for printing and publishing, and widening the market for books and related materials.